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queen cell? now what?

Just did a hive inspection and I'm pretty sure this is a queen cell. I located the existing queen on another top bar and it has fresh eggs. And there is other brood all over the other bars. So do I pull this one bar out and put in a nuc to let them raise this queen, or will they not try to supersede until this new queen has returned from her mating flight, which won't happen because there are no drones around this time of year. It's a small colony without much stores so I don't want to be wasteful, but I'm also a newbeek and want to get the experience before next spring when I want to do a split.queencell.jpg

Re: queen cell? now what?

I guess the picture isn't showing the depth of the cell. It's sticking way out from the comb, unlike any other I've ever seen. I'll pull it on Sat to see if it's capped. By my calculation, it's about 7-8 days old, which is when the queen was outside the hive overnight (10hrs) in my observation hive. I'm assuming if this is a queen cell that they will make it all bumpy looking like I've seen in the books. So IF it is a queen cell, do I just leave it in the hive and let it mature? I thought the books said the bees could swarm once it was capped. (I know, the bees don't read those books, but I'd hate to lose them so I set out a bait hive on the shed roof near my pecan tree. And I've already had one scout checking it out)

Re: queen cell? now what?

Re: queen cell? now what?

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a few cells that looked like that in my hive. By the time I inspected them the next week, the cells were either gone, or they had been capped as drone cells. Keep an eye on it if that makes you more comfortable, but I wouldn't worry too much.